"Oui, certainement," replied the woman kindly. "Come into my kitchen, children; there sit down by the hearth, and warm yourselves, while I make ready for you."
Soon a plentiful meal of hot milk and bread, and thick pancakes of buckwheat flour, was put before them. As the famished lads ate and drank their fill, their hospitable hostess paused now and again in her work, to smile at them approvingly, and heap their plates, and replenish their cups with a fresh supply of food and drink.
At last the cravings of appetite were satisfied, and seeing how weary and sleepy the boys looked, the good woman said:
"Listen, my children; I can see that you need rest; indeed one would think you had had no sleep all night. Now there is clean straw laid on the floor of my apple room, at the back of the house. Would you not like to lie down there and rest—both of you—for a few hours?"
"Ah yes, indeed we should, madame!" cried Tad.
"And thank you, oh, thank you for your goodness!" said Phil, glancing up gratefully with wistful, moistened eyes. For after all that the boys had known of late of hardship, privation, and above all of cruelty—they could hardly accept without tears, the motherly kindness of this gentle-hearted stranger.
She led them to the back of the house, and opening a door, ushered them into the little room where the winter fruit stores were kept. On shelves round the walls were arranged, in tidy rows, on clean paper, rosy-cheeked apples, and hard, sound, brownish-green baking pears, while on the straw in one corner reposed several enormous golden pumpkins. Dried herbs of many kinds hung in bunches from strings carried across the room just below the rafters of the low roof, and little lath boxes of various seeds had a small shelf all to themselves. But on the floor, at the corner of the room furthest from the door, was a thick mass of fresh straw and hay, dry and fragrant, and to this the woman pointed.
"Lie down there, my children," she said, "and sleep as long as you will."
As they crept thankfully into their cosy bed, she went and fetched a horse-blanket and covered them carefully with such sweet, womanly tenderness, that Phil caught her hand and kissed it, and Tad looked up into the kind, sad face, his own softened and made beautiful by gratitude. Then with a gentle "Sleep well, my children!" their new friend left them to their repose.
The boys must have slept about eight hours, for when they awoke it seemed to be late in the afternoon. The sun was no longer shining in through the slats of the shutter window; indeed the daylight appeared already to be on the wane. Moreover, a voice which somehow was familiar, and dreamily associated in their minds with something distinctly unpleasant, sounded in their ears, and presently roused them to full consciousness.